How to deal with the Saul Spirit

Continuation of The Controlling Spirit in the Pray Portions by Sylvia Gunter.

"Study the life of David in relation to Saul.  Look for David's prayers, attitudes, and where His confidence is, as you read these Psalms that David wrote while in difficult relationships: Psalms 3-7, 9-13, 15-18, 34, 52, 54, 56-57, 59, 63, and 142.

Ask, "Lord, what are you teaching me about myself?  What is it in me that You are determined to purge me of?  Keep me here until You have done the work, and then deliver me."  Effectual dealing with the Saul-type controlling spirit must be done on three fronts: sin, woundedness, and spiritual warfare.  You need to repent of your sins and let God heal your wounding.  Then you are in a position to deal with the spiritual warfare issues.  Your enemy is not the person, but the spiritual power behind the control.

1.  Work through forgiveness.

  Thank God for your controller's good qualities.  Ask God to forgive you of the judgment in which you have held him.  Ask Him to forgive you of bitterness, and ask God to bless them with healing.  The controller has many good qualities.  He is a victim of his own family of origin.  Try to understand where he came from and what is going on in him, so that you can extend grace to him and truly love him.

2.  Let God judge.

  God will judge the controlling spirit.  Saul, his three sons, his armor bearer, and all his army were destroyed.  (1 Sam. 31:1 and following).  The ultimate controller has suicidal tendencies.  Saul tried to kill himself but had to ask someone else to finish the job (31:4).

3.  Acknowledge to God that you have grieved over the relationship.

  You never had or do not have an affirming relationship with your controller (father or husband or boss or pastor.)  Thank God that it has caused you to press in to Him, to know Him as your Father or Husband in dimensions you never could have known Him otherwise.  God is the great Redeemer.  He will restore the years that the locusts have eaten.

4.  Persevere in prayer.

  The battle is a long war (it continued 7 1/2 years), indicating that this is one of the hardest spirits to get rid of (2 Sam 3:1).  Eventually you will win.  As the house of David grew stronger and stronger, the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker.  As you stand in prayer and begin to resist it, you will grow stronger in the Lord, and the grip of the Saul will be exposed and grow weaker.

5.  Set righteous boundaries.

  Jesus had this one limitation--He only did the will of the Father.  Ask your Father how much of the relationship you must continue to be.  You many have no choice, but remember that Jonathan died with his father.  God can give you grace to choose life instead of death.

6.  Take lessons from David's response to Saul.

  Spiritual victories are won by coming against an enemy in the opposite spirit from that which drives him.  For example, meet pride with humility, not more pride.  Meet angry words with a soft answer, not more angry words which stir up more strife.  The following are examples of how David demonstrated his understand of this principle.

  *He would not wear Saul's armor.  He would not imitate him.

  *He knew the living God intimately.

  *He did not throw spears back."

I hope you have enjoyed this little series on Saul.  It made me stop and think about how we all have the tendency to be like Saul, but should be more like David.    While we may not be exactly like Saul, we have qualities that can make us like him. 

A situation in my family this year has made me realize more deeply how easy it can be to let sin alienate us from God.  I never realize how Anger and bitterness will only make one delusional about the realities of life.  {Sin will take you further then you want to go, keep you longer then you want to stay and cost you more then you want to pay.}

Be praying for someone in my family.  They desperately need prayer.  They are living with a true blooded Saul in their life and it is hurting the whole family.  Pray it is not too late to turn them around.  I sat there the other day thinking about how I wanted to pound on "someone" for putting someone I love through this trial.  I asked God what I should do and that day or the next I read in the bible we are to restore them to righteousness through gentleness.  That was my answer.  Gentleness.  When I felt like telling them to "Man Up" and get over them selves and quit being so arrogant, God was telling me to be quiet.